Your Right to Know

Ohioans can easily find several reasons
to vote against state Issue 2 and prevent Senate Bill 5 from taking effect:

• The solution is bigger than the problem.

Public-employee strikes? Not happening. Unfair binding arbitration? Despite statements by issue
supporters, the state’s own figures show the rulings have been split evenly in recent years between
management and union.

Ohio was besieged by illegal strikes and public-employee turmoil in the years leading up to the
current law being passed in 1983. If you judge collective bargaining for public employees based on
what it was supposed to address, the measure has been a success.

• Public employees are being unfairly blamed for the fiscal problems gripping the state and
local governments.

First, no one forced either side to sign these contracts; they were all duly negotiated and
agreed upon by both unions and public officials. Second, public workers didn’t cause the recession
that is creating much of Ohio’s current financial woes. And, third, public workers already have
given hundreds of millions of dollars in concessions to help government officials balance the
books.

A more plausible cause for some of the current money troubles is the response by Gov. John
Kasich and Republican legislators to a massive state budget deficit: They cut $1.4 billion in
funding for local governments, including schools, merely passing part of the state’s budget problem
“down hill.”

Former Gov. Ted Strickland, although supported by public-employee unions, demonstrated in 2009
that significant concessions can be attained under the current collective-bargaining law.
State-employee unions agreed to cost-cutting measures, including 10 furlough days a year without
pay, saving taxpayers $350 million.

• Senate Bill 5 represents the classic government overreach often seen when one party gains new
power, as occurred in the 2010 election.

The new law gives government officials authority to simply accept their own contract offer,
without regard to anything the union wants. This lone provision in the 304-page bill effectively
eliminates true collective bargaining in everything but name only.

At anti-Issue 2 rallies across the state, protesters say they are motivated by a fervor to save
public-employee unions; they see Senate Bill 5 as a thinly veiled attempt to kill unions. Kasich,
son of a unionized mail carrier, denies that, but he has been undermined by his own words and
actions and those of his GOP allies.

During the campaign, Kasich said he wanted to “break the backs” of teachers unions, and it was
his office that pushed for controversial late additions to Senate Bill 5 that put obstacles in the
way of union organizing, dues collection and political contributions — viewed by public-workers
unions as a death knell to their existence.

Union leaders and legislative Democrats complained they were precluded from helping to craft the
bill and that it was too draconian. That it passed by just one vote in an Ohio Senate controlled
23-10 by Republicans — after making it to the floor by one vote only after GOP leaders replaced a
recalcitrant Republican committee member — should have signaled backers that the bill was well
outside the mainstream and would have difficulty getting widespread support from Ohioans.

• Much focus has been directed to the benefits public employees receive, especially
pensions.

Ohio’s five pension funds already have agreed to billions in cuts to workers’ retirement pay in
a proposal separate from Senate Bill 5. Those changes have not been made yet.

In addition, a plan by Kasich to force public employees to contribute 2 percent more of their
pay to their pensions is still alive. Government employers would save the 2 percent under Kasich’s
proposal.

• Issue 2 advocates have emphasized two sections of Senate Bill 5: One that forbids government
employers from picking up any of the 10 percent employees are supposed to contribute toward their
pension, and another requiring that workers pay at least 15 percent of their health-care costs.

The “pension pickups” are not provided to 93 percent of public employees, and many who benefit
from them (such as superintendents and other school administrators) are not union workers. While
this sounds like a sweet perk, in many cases this pickup was awarded in lieu of a pay increase. And
what many taxpayers may not realize is that an increase of 2 percent in pay ends up costing more
(because of overtime and other factors) than a 2 percent bump in the pension pickup.

The health-care threshold already is met by all state employees, and local-government workers
are increasingly paying a greater share.

Although the ability to negotiate safety
equipment was restored to the bill, public workers still can’t automatically bring up
safety
issues, including staffing levels. Safety forces can point to several examples in which
they say the only way they got safety items was through collective bargaining. Can the local
officials who initially denied safety equipment be trusted to adequately staff emergency vehicles
or cruiser districts — or even classrooms?

• Senate Bill 5 opponents often are chided for not offering alternatives. But in their view, it
appeared that the only substantive issue left to negotiate was the brand of bullet being used to
kill off public-employee unions.

They note that Kasich and the GOP legislature were rushing to get Senate Bill 5 passed quickly
to avoid a referendum on the 2012 ballot, alongside the presidential contest and many legislative
races.

Opponents maintain that Senate Bill 5 was a hastily, ill-conceived and one-sided attempt at “
reform” that must be corrected on Election Day.